


Discovered

by Jade_Rotaski



Series: New Beginnings [5]
Category: SPN, Supernatural
Genre: AU, Exposition, Fluff, Gen, Luficer - Freeform, M/M, Plot, Season 9, Wings, grace#, plot and more plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-03
Updated: 2014-04-03
Packaged: 2018-01-18 01:43:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1410343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jade_Rotaski/pseuds/Jade_Rotaski
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things take a turn for Gabriel as team free will finally find out who's behind all the mysterious text messages they've been receiving, Castiel sees the extent of the damage done to his brother by Lucifer, and a promise is made by Gabriel to help find Metatron...</p>
<p>(AKA: this has a shit ton of plot)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Discovered

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly even though I managed to get this dome pretty quickly, I don't think this is very good out of all the dabbles so far from my blog, maybe because it's mainly plot and the boys finally catching up on what everyone already knows..or maybe it's just me being paranoid.
> 
> Either way I hope people like this! Please don;t be afraid to comment and like this :)
> 
> Jade xx

Chapter 5 - Discovered

\----

Gabriel sighed softly as he looked around at the quiet little cafe he was currently sat in, he had taken a window seat so he could admire the view outside of everyday humans going about their everyday lives; humans were fascinating, they were diverse and flawed but that's what made them amazing in their own right. 

Letting out a soft sigh, he sipped at the hot chocolate he'd bought; while it was true, that with some of his grace restored due to Amriel's sacrifice that he had no need to eat or drink, he still found comfort in the sweet foods anyway; he did still have a sweet tooth even after so many years of being a trickster and old habits tended to die hard. He was mostly bored right now, as he was taking a well deserved break from days of research and following dead ends in his search for Bartholomew; while he was safely hidden from angels because of the warding tattoo, this also meant that progress was also pretty slow. The archangel didn't know where the other was exactly but it seemed many lesser angels were following him either out of fear, out of blindly thinking that what they were doing was just, or it was their only option.

Licking at the whipped cream from his lips with his tongue, he set the cup back down; he had spent his time flying from place to place searching for any and all angels he could find, many he encountered were like Amriel, running scared, trying to live amongst humans quietly and Gabriel after talking with them left them alone; he had no quarrel with the innocent after all, but he did make them vow to tell no one of his revival at least not until he was ready.

Of course there were a few spies out there that worked for Bartholomew, but most angels were not good at lying or faking their fear at the sight of him, and Gabriel picked them out pretty easily in a crowd. Even when he cornered them the blonde tried to show them another way, tried to reason with them, but most, if not all attacked him and he had no choice but to put them down even if he hated to do so.

It was just like Amriel said; it was chaos on earth, angels fighting angels as a massive power struggle broke out over what to do now they were grounded here, and Bartholomew had decided he was some great pragmatic leader and decided to use humans, gaining vessels through the TV show Buddy Boyle, tricking humans into being willing hosts...at least those that didn't go pop when an angels power became too much for them.

Gabriel almost wished he could do more; his grace was still recovering even with Amriel's sacrifice, the regeneration rate had increased at least and he could at hold his own against one or two angels without much difficulty.

A group of them though? probably not so much, thankfully he hadn't encountered a whole gang of angels or he would have been royally screwed.

Gabriel glanced over his phone as he finished his hot chocolate; he was still sending the Winchester brothers and Cas text messages from time to time and he felt he might have given them too much of a hint who he might be, even though he had revealed nothing of his identity. He was sure that he'd been careful not to say too much, he couldn't help but shake the feeling Sam knew he was alive; the other was smart, far to smart then people realized, so it was only a matter of time before he was discovered.

He knew a part of his avoidance with Sam, Dean and Cas was due to guilt and some shame for what he had put them all through; he had done what he thought was right at the time, and he had sacrificed himself to let them escape from Lucifer, but that didn't mean he could be easily forgiven for his actions, and he honestly had no idea what to do or say that would make up for all the stress that team free will had gone through because of him.

He was avoiding the inevitable, he knew it but he decided it was better to focus on other issues and deal with Cas and the Winchesters when he came to that particular bridge. As for the angels? Well he wasn't sure if he could get them to stop fighting let alone to get them to calm their shit and just live amongst humans quietly. As for Metatron, he wanted to have serious words with God's scribe for what he had done to his brethren, but the other proved to be even more elusive than Bartholomew when it came to making appearances on earth.

Metatron had done this; it was bad enough he'd doomed all angels to live on earth, wingless, scared and lashing out, but he had also let Castiel take the blame for his treachery and it was something the blonde couldn't forgive. He knew his little brother was still alive but he was worried it wouldn't stay that way for long considering what he was being blamed for; after all angels were not known for spreading forgiveness to their own kind when they fucked up, he just hoped Cas had the sense to run or fight.

Gabriel snapped out of his thoughts when he sensed something tugging at his grace as if some invisible force was trying to yank it forcefully out of his body; instinctively he knew that someone was using a spell to try and fucking summon him of all things. Panicking slightly, he tried for fight the force of what was proving to be a very powerful spell, as he just knew that this was the Winchesters trying to get into contact with him. Alas his fate was sealed; the spell was powerful, not to mention binding once it had a hold of him and he had no choice but to be pulled from the quiet cafe and dragged three states and underground until he arrived to where he was summoned.

He didn't recognize this place at all; he had half expected to be summoned in an old warehouse or a motel as per usual Winchester tradition, but it was clear this place was neither of those; from the look of it it was old the décor suggested it had been built sometime in the 1800's and electrical generators and machines had been built in as technology progressed, even though these were outdated and old they were surprisingly still functional. He has no idea what sort of place this was but he could tell it was underground and heavily warded to keep demons and other supernatural creatures out.

"Well boys...this is a nice place you have here" Gabriel said as he looked, unsurprisingly to Sam and Dean over the ring of holy fire they had trapped him in, and then over to Castiel who looked tense and tight lipped but also a little hurt; just from the look of him he can tell his little brother had been through hell and back.

"Gabriel..." Castiel ground out and the blonde raised an eyebrow in surprise at the others anger, he supposed that was a natural reaction...for a human; the last time he'd seen his little brother the other hadn't known much about human interactions, he supposed that had changed what with Dean's ever present influence on him.

The blonde cocked his head to one side as he stared hard at his little brother and understanding flooded through him; the others grace...it was gone, Cas WAS practically human, he was fragile in ways he never imagined the other being. The blonde put on a calm smiling face acting relaxed and carefree though he felt neither of these things right now. "Castiel! It's good to see you alive and well...but of course I already knew that" he said as he pulled out his phone and waved it at them with a sly grin and a playful wink, watching as each of their faces changed; predictably Dean was the first to speak.

"Oh you son of a bitch! I should have known all those prank texts at four in the morning were you!" Dean bit out, his jaw tight and mouth set in a thin line as he glared at him with barely concealed anger at being mocked by someone who was supposedly dead.

Gabriel snorted a bit at this and rolled his amber eyes at him "Oh please its not my fault you make it FAR easy for me to piss you off, you need to learn to take a joke; that's always been your problem Dean-o you can dish out the pranks but you can't take em" He said wagging a finger at the shorter Winchester "Besides when you come back from the dead you get bored easily"

"Wait so...you didn't fake your own death?" Sam asked looking at him with a mixture of suspicion and curiosity; ah so they thought he'd been lying low this whole time, that would explain Castiel's previous annoyance at least.

"What? You really think could stand up to Luci and survive in tact? Hell no! He shanked me though my grace! I DIED boys, hell I don't even know how or why I was brought back" He said; okay so maybe that was a lie as he had a pretty good idea as to the what, the how, and the why, but he wasn't going to mention that to them, at least not yet. "Look, I've heard about what's going on out there, with heaven being locked out and with angels scattering, an old friend told me about what you boys have been up to while was dead" He looked to his little brother "I mean really Cas? Trying to fight Raphael and then the Leviathan controlling you and being released into the wild? Demon and angel tablets? It sounds like you guys have it rough"

"Why didn't you just tell me you were alive?" Castiel said softly sounding less angry and more confused now, looking more and more like a sad kitten that the blonde just wanted to pick up and pet on the head.

"What and ruin the party? look Cassie, I woke up in a damned forest with no idea what was going on or why, I did some research on my own and what do you know, by coincidence a meteor shower happened only a couple of days after my revival" He said with a shrug "Of course we all know that meteor show was falling angels, scattered all across the earth, so took that as a sign to find more answers, figured it'd be less complicated if you guys didn't know yet until I found some answers of my own"

Castiel exchanged a look with the others before looking back at his brother; he was both happy and angry to see Gabriel alive but if what he said was true then his revival had only been a few months old at best, and the fact Gabriel knew what had happened since filled him with shame and embarrassment "Who revived you? was it..." He trailed off swallowing.

The blonde sighed and shrugged "I don't know, if it was dad, he's being really fucking vague as per damned usual about what he wants me to do now I'm alive" He blonde huffed as he sat down cross-legged on the floor, his arms across his chest as he no longer felt like standing up at the moment "I don't even think you could have classed me as an angel as woke up, my grace was...almost non existent, it's only thanks to another angel I have the energy I do right now"

"What? Did you steal another angels mojo?" Den asked with a snort looking at him suspiciously as he walked around the edge of the circle of holy fire.

"What do you take me for, a savage?" Gabriel said sounding half offended and half amused at this "No, she gave up her grace willingly for me thank you very much! Amriel her name was and she was so damn terrified Bartholomew would find her -YES I know about him too, and Metatron don't interrupt Cas" He said as his brother opened his mouth to talk "-that she decided being human would be better then being an angel" Gabriel insisted "It's only thanks to her have enough power to protect myself, even warded I come across Bartholomew's agents...no matter what I tried to tell them, to convince them to take another path the result was the same, they attacked me, in the end I had little choice but to end them in case they told the other of my whereabouts"

Sam and Dean looked to each other, not sure if they should believe him and he wasn't surprised at their suspicious considering what they had put them through, Castiel however seemed to be staring at him intently with a mixture of confusion and concern for him, before he approached the ring of fire "Can I see your wings?"

"No!" Gabriel said instantly defensive; when Amriel had given her grace for him he manifested his wings to see the damage from the wound Lucifer had given him; you see a lot of grace is stored in an angels wings, the reason why you see wing marks burned into the ground when an angel dies, is because the wings literally explode and turn into ash, and two of his six beautiful wings had been burned up, charred and broken beyond recognition; and he hated how ugly the two wings were, it would take years for them to heal, maybe even longer then any human life time for them to fully recover.

"Gabriel..." Castiel gave him a look that was part curious, part pleading but Gabriel didn't seem to want to budge, so he turned to Sam and Dean "Can you give me a moment alone with him?" he asked them both, Sam didn't seem sure that was a good idea but Dean nodded; he trusted Cas to know what he was doing, and with a nudge to Sam the two of them left the room, leaving the angels all alone.

Castiel waited until they were gone before he gave the blonde a pointed look "Gabriel, please show me" He said his tone less demanding and much more gentle this time around.

The Archangel sighed; his denial of the others request was an obvious give-away something was wrong as when he had still been in heaven he would have shown off his wings happily. "Fine" He muttered as he looked at the floor and said nothing as his wings shimmered as they physically manifested in a glowing bright light; four of his wings were fine, the dark brown feathers on the top of the joints gradually turned to gold and then white at the tips of the feathers and the shimmered faintly in the dull light of the room.

Castiel looked at them and frowned, the other should have six wings, not four and circling around the archangel he discovered what remained of the other two of his wings, they were blackened, charred and curled up tightly to his back "...Gabriel..." He breathed wide eyed at the amount of damage he saw; he wanted to touch them to hold his brother; but the holy fire still separated them and the blonde self consciously turned to face Cas so the other couldn't see the damage anymore. 

The blonde tried to pass it off as nothing as he waved a hand at Cas's saddened expression "Oh don't get all sad for me, I'm lucky to be alive...it's just two of my wings, I still have four to play with right? Gotta count my blessings and all that" He said as he put a smile on his face but he really did feel self-conscious about it; he'd always taken such pride in his wings because they were different from the other archangels; Michael's that were pure white and silver, Raphael's, a soft chocolate brown or Lucifer's which had been a beige colour before he had been cast out; but he had been blessed he had lots of different shades of coloured feathers, and he had been very prideful of their appearance.

Then again, Pride **was** a sin wasn't it?

"Yes, you are" Castiel agreed quietly before he walked over to what looked like a bucket of sand and dusted it over the holy fire until it was extinguished "I believe you when you say you were brought back...but you didn't have to hide from us Gabriel, we would have...I would have helped you"

"Yeah I know...that's exactly why I wanted to keep you guys out of it, when Amriel told me about all I missed I knew would be the last person anyone wanted to see, especially Sam and Dean" the archangel muttered as he stepped out of the extinguished ring.

"But why did you keep texting us? And how did you get our numbers?" 

"I was bored mostly" The blonde admitted "Hey going frrm place to place gets pretty lonely you know, as for your numbers...Dad gave me yours along with the phone, and I found a hunter who knew Sam and Dean and copied their numbers out of his phone book" He said with a shrug "So...what now? You summoned me here after all" He said.

"Dean might not like it, but you may leave if you wish, I will not stop you from leaving, though I would prefer you stay here, it's well warded, no angel can find it unless given directions or like you, are summoned here" the lesser angel said calmly "However if you do leave, I want you to keep in touch...my grace I, it was used as part of the spell to shut down heaven, as far as know Metatron still has it and I could use your help in tracking him down" Castiel said softly "Besides the Winchesters may need our help from time to time" Castiel pointed out "With heaven closed it's chaos out there, but I'm sure you've seen if for yourself"

Gabriel had to admit he was surprised; after running away from heaven when the other had been naught but a fledgling, he would have expected a lot more hatred or anger from the other for leaving him behind...but then again this was the angel who rebelled, the angel who sided with humans, so he'd learned to know about forgiveness and to give it out freely.

"I don't think sticking around is a good idea right now, not with Dean-o wanting to kill me for all the pranks I pulled on him recently, but I'll consider it once everyone's all cooled off, until then you have my number"

"I take it you were behind the fact Sam snuck up behind him and shoved a pie in his face the other day?" Castiel asked with a raised eyebrow though he seemed impressed and maybe a little amused, after all he'd had to help Dean pick bits of cream and pastry out of his hair before he could take a shower.

Gabriel grinned at his brother, the mischievousness lighting up in his golden eyes once more "Naturally! it was April fools! How could I not get Samquatch involved? its my favourite time of the year" He said with a faint smile.

He was tempted to stay, really he was, this bunker was unlike anything he'd seen before in earth and he was really curious about it's history and what its purpose was before the Winchesters turned it into their own personal batcave "Tell moose and moron if they ever need me they already have my number, in the meantime I'll see about getting you your grace back, just be careful okay?"

Castiel nodded at that looking a little hesitant to see the other leaving again so soon; even if he and Gabriel had their disagreements in the past, the blonde was still his big brother "Alright..." He paused for a moment before he spoke up again "And Gabriel? It is good to know you are alive, I truly am happy to see you" He said softly.  
The archangel paused at this not even sure what to say to that; it had been aeons since an angel had ever been glad to see him; he'd always been classed as the runaway, the disappointment of the archangels, but Castiel's words made him smile despite himself and he nodded "Yeah, good to see you holding out as well" He said with a smile before he was gone in a fluttering of wings.

Now team free dork knew he was alive he could stop worrying about it and focus on Bartholomew and Metatron.

He wasn't sure which one was going to be more of a pain in the ass to deal with.

-TBC-


End file.
